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Wednesday, December 07, 2016

Well, another Hot Stove season for baseball, and another season that is just plain boring for the Phillies fan. Just a few short years ago, we were treated to some great news of players joining the team but lately, that news hasn't been there.

The Phillies have made a few moves this off-season, but nothing to really hold out hope that it's going to be the team of the future or an important part of why the Phils will do much better this year.

Are Phillies management getting a bonus for keeping a tight reign on signings? It seems to be very strange that the Phils are supposed to be rebuilding for the future, now all of a sudden, there are a lot of one-year deals with players that aren't all that exciting.

It came down to the wire almost, just 3 and a half hours until what was described as a player lockout which may have had an impact on the 2017 season. With each labor issue that baseball has had, they have lost fans, many of whom have never looked back. So, it's great that this didn't happen.

Interestingly, the player seemed to be very fearful of baseball opening the draft up to an international pool, I think that could have only helped salaries go higher. If teams speculated on international players that didn't pan out, there would have been plenty of money to go around for those players still in the regular draft.

This labor agreement could've had a significant impact in the future of baseball, had a lockout occurred, there would have been fans to close the book on the game. A generation perhaps? In this day and age of easy TV money, this agreement was a no-brainer. I am waiting on the day when the fans will speak to baseball a little. The high ticket prices passed on to fans with a myriad of other fees until you get in your seat at a ballpark is at an all-time high. Baseball is entertainment, a luxury, an item that people can choose to attend.

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Mike Trout enjoying an Eagles game in Philadelphia. Could this be the start of a long affair with the city of Philadelphia and the Phillies?

There was talk yesterday on MLB Network and it mentioned the marketability of Mike Trout.

There were pros and cons talked about the path that Mike Trout may want to take if he gets frustrated with the finishing place of the Anaheim Angels, like they finished this year. Yes, Trout signed a whopping $144.5M extension to stay with the Angels for 6 years which runs through 2020.

Plenty of reasons were thrown around where Angels management probably would never make a decision to want to trade a player like Trout. He's simply the best player in baseball, but the Angels haven't gone anywhere because of this. One real strong indicator that baseball is a team sport, it takes a lot more than one player to make a good team.

I think the Angels could someday want to test the waters to see what they could get. The bulk of his contract comes due in the years following 2017.

Matt Klentak used to get with the Angels organization, he knows Mike Trout personally, and that could be some sort of blue chip that the Phillies may hold. Another reason the Phillies have an edge is that Trout is from South Jersey, he could be close to his home for most of the baseball season. Of course with the millions that he'll make this season, anywhere could feel like home, and very comfortable at that for him. His roots though are in South Jersey.

Trout holds the keys to his future in regards to trades, he has a full 'no trade' contract. He must approve any trade, and if and when that day comes, it may be tough for him to make a decision. As he gets older, he may want to start be on a winning team. He may stay in that 'small market' bubble. We've seem plenty of good players stay in that mode, and quietly go home when it comes time for playoffs.

He'll probably want to play out the contract with Anaheim, taking him another 4 seasons down the road. Just think though at the contract he would have gotten after this year, he would have been a free agent and with the kind of money that was thrown at Giancarlo Stanton, $325M for 13 years, the money for Trout would have possibly been more per season.

Of course there are a lot of teams that would rush to get the services of a Mike Trout, he's a player that doesn't seem all impressed by teams that would throw money at him, but for now that dream of landing Trout is just that, a dream.

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

The New York Yankees have made some bold moves over the offseason so far. They've catapulted themselves back up the spending ladder (estimated at $173M for '17), but still are below the free wheeling Boston Red Sox who almost have a $191M payroll for the 2017 season.

The Phillies have jettisoned salary but really haven't gone on any spending sprees of late. The Phils have added two players that will tack a $27M amount onto the payroll for just one year, but still have a payroll that is estimated to be well under $100M for 2017 so far.

The Phillies haven't been this low in salary since before the success of the 2008 World Series team. In fact, the team is at a level it was in 2006 or before. This is well off of all-time records set by the Phils in salary spending in the 2012 and 2014 seasons when the team spent more than it ever did in salaries for one season of baseball.

In 2012, the Phillies spent a record $172M for their Opening Day 25-man roster, culminating the big salaries they handed out after winning the World Series in 2008. They should have been making moves in the few years after the win, but never did. The Phils management led by Ruben Amaro Jr. was very reluctant to break up the success that they perceived was still capable of making it to the playoffs and winning again. After a dip in spending in 2013, the team then went out and set the all-time spending record for the Phils for their Opening Day payroll in 2014 of $177M, and ended up paying out about $183M by the end of the season. Again, no success on the field by that team and Ruben was headed out the door by Phillies management.

As of now, Jeremy Hellickson will be the highest paid on the Phillies at $17.2M for one season, somehow, I don't think the Phillies are done adding for 2017 yet. The hot stove season hasn't really got to a boil yet, and there are plenty of moves that the Phillies can still make.

Friday, November 18, 2016

A lot of the Phillies moves up to this point have made sense for the team. Have the aging veterans that were an important piece of the Phillies past success leave the team to pave the way for the next wave of success for the team. One by one we bid goodbye to important pieces of the 2008 World Series victory.

Cole Hamels, Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Chooch, all gone now and the team got a lot younger in the process.

We needed something to build on in 2017, but so far all we have to show for the hot stove is the pickup with Howie Kendrick who himself is an aging veteran that just happened to have a really bad year last year, and we've offered a $17.5M contract to a pitcher who we liked, but really only wanted to offer him that huge one year deal on the premise that he would refuse it and go to free agency.

Jeremy Hellickson wanted to test the waters of free agency. He couldn't lose in this scenario. The Phillies offer him a huge chunk of change to stay with the team for 1 season, meanwhile he can get his 'super agent', Scott Boras, to find him a new team for a multi-year deal. Well, no team was real interested in Hellickson for a multi-year deal, so he keeps the Phillies overpayment for 2017. Somehow that doesn't seem right, how can the player lose in that situation? The Phillies should get a 20-30 percent discount off the original offer.

Matt Klentak, Phillies GM, said he was happy either way. If Hellickson stayed and took the huge one-year deal from the Phils, or he left and the Phils got a draft pick for him. That doesn't sound like a strategist to me, and this last two weeks in the Phillies off-season feels like they have taken a couple steps back in the rebuild process.

Saturday, November 12, 2016

The Phillies finally made a hot stove move yesterday, and what they came up with is an aged outfielder who earned $10M last year with the Dodgers and didn't deliver much in return for it.

Howie Kendrick is now a Phillie, he'll be patrolling out in the field for the team in 2017 or he may be in the infield. What the Phillies gave up for Kendrick is quite a bit. The Phils traded Darnell Sweeney and Darin Ruf to the LA Dodgers in the deal.

Sweeney looked like he had a lot of promise with the Phillies. He is young, and he had a very good swing, hitting 3 HR and driving in 11 RBI in his brief stint with the Phillies. Sweeney was drafted by the Dodgers in 2012, but found his way to the Phillies and now back to the team that originally paved his path to the big leagues. Darin Ruf is another player that is an example of how the Phillies really messed up a career of a ballplayer by keeping him in the minors too long.

Is this the kind of moves that the Phillies management feel that are really upgrading this team? Matt Klentak used to be an assistant GM with the Angels prior to getting the GM job with the Phillies, so he is familiar with Kendrick as Howie played there from the age of 23 to 30.

Kendrick will be making $10M from the Phillies this year. Last year, he had low offensive production with the Dodgers, he wanted to be traded. Maybe the change in teams will be a good thing for him, and the fact that 2017 will be coming up for another contract after next year,

All in all, I think I'd have rather seen Sweeney have a chance at left field, the few times we saw him, he looked like he had a whole lot of potential.

Thursday, November 10, 2016

We've seen some areas that the Phillies really need to improve at during the past couple seasons. If this was a building that the Phillies were 'rebuilding', we would have to say that there is a long way to go before this building could be declared ready for occupancy.

The Phils have tiptoed into the Hot Stove area of free agents and have barely made a peep. The salaries that have been shaved off of this team have been many, and now what we are left with is a bunch of younger players that most of are due a little more than league minimum for their services for 2017. The team lacked leadership in 2016, there was many games that could have been wins that weren't and the need for better hitters on this team is a glaring one that hasn't been addressed yet by ownership in the form of getting people on the team who can really hit the ball.

The top fielders that the Phillies could be in the hunt for is a hitter, maybe a Dexter Fowler or a Jose Bautista? Jose is a little on the old side, but you never know, a two-year deal perhaps? A few questions stand in the way of that interest. Would a player even consider signing in a place that Philadelphia has become in the past few seasons, and would it make sense to add a player that the Phillies would have to spend a lot of money to land.

You have to start somewhere, you need a veteran, and he should be a leader of some sort with this younger group of players the Phillies have. You need a spark, a guy who can come through and inspire others to do the same.

Do you package up a guy like Maikel Franco and trade him for someone? How about Tommy Joseph, do you package him up with someone and make a trade for a bigger fish?

These are the things that management must come up with, so far, they have played a very conservative hand with this Phillies team. Almost like they are afraid to spend some money, or directed not to.

Something needs to happen with this Phillies team, the clock is ticking, and the hot stove is cooking!

Tuesday, November 08, 2016

November 7, 2016 – The Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA) today announced the top three finalists in the American League and National League for the 2016 BBWAA Awards. Following is the complete list of finalists, along with the dates for each upcoming award announcement on MLB Network:

Starting next Monday, November 14 through Thursday, November 17, BBWAA Awards Week on MLB Network will feature the exclusive live announcements of the winners of each award in the American League and National League by BBWAA secretary-treasurer Jack O’Connell. Hosted by MLB Network’s Greg Amsinger, BBWAA Awards Week will feature live interviews with award finalists, winners and BBWAA members, plus insight from MLB Network’s Sean Casey, Ron Darling, Brian Kenny, Dan O’Dowd, Dan Plesac, Harold Reynolds, Ken Rosenthal, Christopher Russo and Tom Verducci. MLB Network’s offseason programming will provide extensive coverage leading up to and following the daily award announcements, including on Hot Stove, High Heat with Christopher Russo, MLB Now, Intentional Talk and MLB Network’s signature studio show,MLB Tonight.

About the BBWAA:

Founded in 1908, the Baseball Writers’ Association of America was established to assist journalists covering Major League Baseball for daily newspapers. Its purpose is to ensure proper working conditions in press boxes and clubhouses, and to ensure its members have access to players and others in the game so members’ reporting can be accurate, fair and complete. Today there are more than 700 active members of the BBWAA working for newspapers, magazines and major web sites.